Dock bumpers can help you protect your warehouse, your dock equipment and trailers. Every product that moves in and out of your warehouse or manufacturing plant goes through the dock, so it is critical to preserve it and keep all doors available and in good condition.

Types of Dock Bumpers

Typically, dock bumpers are situated so that a truck or trailer runs into the bumper before hitting your structure. This safeguards your building, your dock equipment and the trailer or truck that uses your dock.

There are quite a few varieties of dock bumpers, and choosing the correct dock bumper can be consequential, depending on the volume of your dock operation. Installing dock bumpers that are too light can result in premature failure, while using dock bumpers that are excessively heavy duty may be ineffective and may in fact lead to troubles when securing trailers and trucks.

All docks are different, so the kind of dock bumpers you select will be established by the approach, average trailer or vehicle height, daily volume and a variety of additional variables. For loading docks where trailers have the potential to sway during loading or unloading activities, bumpers may be mounted horizontally or vertically.

Molded Bumpers (Light Duty): Dock bumpers built from molded rubber can supply protection for low-traffic loading docks. What’s more, molded bumpers can be installed within a warehouse to safeguard doorways, walls and other building elements from pallet trucks, forklifts and other equipment.

Molded rubber is prone to chipping and gouging with heavy use and is not as wear resistant as other types of bumpers. If your dock doesn’t get a lot of traffic, they could be a reasonable option for your business.

Laminated Bumpers (Medium Duty): Laminated bumpers have better shock absorption capacity because they have thicker pads. They are constructed from strips of old truck tires that have been cut to size and mounted between steel brackets.

They have a reasonably good level of wear resistance and are adaptable when it comes to height, length and overall thickness. They are often used in operations equipped with pit-style dock levelers or edge-of-dock levelers, as they offer long-lasting protection for high volume loading docks.

Steel Faced Bumpers (Heavy Duty): Steel faced dock bumpers are designed with a sliding section of steel that overlays a conventional laminate bumper, inhibiting excessive erosion of the layered pads. The steel enables trailers to brush against the bumpers without breaking down the rubber. Steel bumpers offer exceptional durability, and usually are in service more than four times as long as uncovered laminate bumpers.

When Should Dock Bumpers Be Replaced?

Although dock bumpers are designed to tolerate impact, they do wear down after sustained use and must be renewed from time to time. There are some key indicators that tell you that your dock bumpers should be replaced.

When the pads have deteriorated by 50% or more, it's time for replacement. Worn pads do not offer enough impact absorption capacity to safeguard your warehouse. Excessively worn pads will ultimately wear down to the metal plates that hold them in place, and this can elicit needless damage to both trailers and brackets.

Apart from normal wear and tear, you should keep an eye out for further damage like separating laminates, fractures, bent or corroding brackets and other obvious defects. Scheduled bumper inspections are a practice, just as you would routinely inspect your levelers and other dock equipment.

Truck Dock Bumpers Near Me

For questions or a dock bumper price quote, contact a dock equipment professional at Raymond West today.

Raymond West's Tucson facility serves Pima County, including Tucson, South Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita and surrounding areas

Raymond West | Tucson Material Handling Equipment Supplier

Tucson Service Area
(520) 729-4222